ALL THE LITTLE ANIMALS

A little book. . . strange little book. . . shades of Steinbeck's Lenny. The narrator, one Bobby Platt, thirty-one, retarded, has a single-minded innocence and it's this believable naivete that carries the reader through the weird turns of the plot. When first met Bobby is running away from a sadistic stepfather after his mother's death. The deliberate cruelty embodied by this man becomes a rather blatant symbol of the world at large, people who cripple or kill all the little animals. Bobby (mind-damaged as a child in a car accident) is an accidental alien, and so is the man who becomes, his mentor, strange Mr. Summers who has devoted his life to burying little dead creatures, usually the victims of civilization. Therefore it's not too shocking when the two eventually set out to kill Bobby's stepfather, ""the Fat""; Mr. Summers quite logically decides that it's the only way to put an end to Bobby's recurrent nightmares and fear of discovery. But the best laid Plans Of Mice and Men have surprising and horrible consequences. . . . A fragmentary nightmare that introduces an interesting talent. Special.